Bryan Cranston and Stephen Colbert perform Exposition Theater

Bryan Cranston is one of Stephen Colbert’s favorite actors for multiple reasons, but mostly because of the subtle way he reveals things about his characters. During Cranston’s Monday night appearance on The Late Show, however, Colbert had him try something completely different: a poorly-written, unsubtle character who announces all his motivations and traits through brazen exposition.

Too Much Exposition Theater found Colbert playing Heathcliff Sharmapolis and Cranston as Bertram Chevalier, and it only got weirder from there. Bertram, for example, declared that he had just gotten back from Cairo, where he had eloped with Heathcliff’s former mistress Beatrice Longfeather after saving her from the Budapest mine-shaft where Heathcliff had abandoned her. Each line brought more backstory, until Bertram revealed he was only there to return Heathcliff’s Dustbuster.

Watch the clip below.

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